Category: Signs in the Heavens

THE US National Guard is on standby in Salem in case of emergencies during a rare total solar eclipse that will plunge much of the US into darkness on Monday. NASA today tweeted that the first US city to witness the unusual event, which has been branded by hardline evangelical Christians as a sign of the end of the world, would be the east-coast US city in Essex County, Massachusetts, which is synonymous with witchcraft. Of course, the US space agency does not believe anything untoward will happen during or after the eclipse, and has set up a base...

THERE have been reports of a house-shaking thud in Killarney after the meteor was spotted in our skies last night. Our sister paper, the Warwick Daily News reported the buzz on social media: Brigitte Jones said, “I felt it out here, the house shook.” Madeline Wilkins posted “I’m in Toowoomba and saw a burning light in the sky maybe a meteorite, heading that direction just before I saw this post… Maybe related?” Killarney resident Krissy Bloomfield said, “On Brosnan Rd kids saw what we thought shooting star just before the bang.” Some residents reported thinking the noise was thunder...

A very bright fireball was seen and recorded streaking through the night sky over San Diego, California around 04:00 UTC on April 11, 2017 (21:00 PDT, April 10). Witnesses have described the event as green and very bright fireball, lasting for several seconds. As of 12:34 UTC, the American Meteor Society has received 295 reports. 11 of them mentioned sound associated with the event while 76 reported fragmentation. The sight was initially thought to be an airplane crash in Hesperia, but there was no wreckage found. The meteor was primarily seen from the San Diego and Los Angeles, California...

The sun is currently blank with no visible sunspots and this is the 14th straight day with a blank look which is the longest such stretch since April 2010 according to spaceweather.com. Historically weak solar cycle 24 continues to transition away from its solar maximum phase and towards the next solar minimum. In April 2010 – the last time there was a two week stretch with no visible sunspots – the sun was emerging from the last solar minimum which was historically long and deep. There have already been 26 spotless days in 2017 (34% of the entire year)...

“The Great American Eclipse” will cross the United States on Aug. 21, CNN reported. It has been 99 years since a total solar eclipse crossed the country from the Pacific to the Atlantic. The total solar eclipse on June 8, 1918, crossed the country from Washington to Florida. During the solar eclipse, the moon will pass between the sun and the Earth, appearing to block the sun for almost 90 minutes. The eclipse is expected to cross the country from Portland, Oregon, to Charleston, South Carolina. Residents in other parts of the country will see a partial eclipse. Scientists and...